I have never personally used Mint but I have heard it’s a great way to keep an eye on your spending and for many people it works well. I agree with you though, I like seeing my money enter my accounts as well and also being aware of when it flows out.

I’m with you – as long as I’m saving and investing a huge chunk of each paycheck every month I know I’ll be on track to hit my goals without the help of a budget. And thanks so much for the kind words Mike, I appreciate all your feedback 🙂

I also found that tracking my accounts too frequently was giving me anxiety, which was completely unnecessary because no matter what the asset prices were in those accounts I didn’t plan on selling them anyway. I find that updating my net worth once a month is a good frequency as well 🙂

Right now I only have my own accounts to think about, which greatly simplifies things. I can imagine managing your wife and kid’s accounts can take a bit more time each month. I think following simple rules of thumb and using a bit of automation can be the trick to optimizing and simplifying your finances 🙂

Love that you also have simple rules you follow to invest excess money when your ‘shares’ account hits a certain number. I understand your manual transfers as well – there’s a certain peace of mind that comes with knowing exactly when and where your money is moving. Thanks for sharing 🙂

I have heard a lot of good things about YNAB, although I have never personally tried it myself. That’s great you’re able to use a combo of YNAB and Personal Capital to simplify your finances, I think most people will find that they only need a couple (if any) tools to keep all their accounts and spending in check.

Thank you, Mrs. Picky Pincher! 🙂 And you nailed it – once you have a system set up you can sit back and let your investments do the heavy-lifting without much effort on your part.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with checking your accounts daily, but if you do want to spend less time tracking your finances just know that it’s possible by using simple rules of thumb and automation 🙂

Agreed – there’s no one size fits all solution. As long as you find something that fits your needs and is relatively simple, you should be good to go 🙂